Interesting Links for 12-11-2011

[andrewducker]

• The King of Human Error - a fascinating piece on the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist who showed how irrational people are.
  (tags: psychology danielkahneman mistakes )
• Children should not be forced to eat everything on their plate. Dessert should never be used as a reward.
  (tags: food children )
• More on the new sandboxing for the Mac Application Store
  (tags: apple computers mac )
• EMI being split up and sold off. We're down to three major labels.
  (tags: music business )
• Screaming the carrier tone - a talent only useful during a tiny fraction of history.
  (tags: modem phone computers )
• Climate change scepticism is a largely Anglo-Saxon phenomenon.
  (tags: language culture climatechange global_warming )
• LiveJournal under DDOS again
  (tags: livejournal ddos internet )
• R.I.P. "Marvelman" Creator Mick Anglo
  (tags: marvelman obituary )
• Outrage as French magazine bombed by Warhammer enthusiasts
  (tags: funny warhammer religion satire islam )

Comments

[hano.livejournal.com]

We're down to three major labels
Good. The majors are scum and always have been. The sooner those parasites whither and die the better. They're anachronistic dinosaurs, a cancer on taste and culture and I look forward to dancing on their graves.
Steve Albini puts it far better than I ever could:

"Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit. I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed. Nobody can see what's printed on the contract. It's too far away, and besides, the shit stench is making everybody's eyes water. The lackey shouts to everybody that the first one to swim the trench gets to sign the contract. Everybody dives in the trench and they struggle furiously to get to the other end. Two people arrive simultaneously and begin wrestling furiously, clawing each other and dunking each other under the shit. Eventually, one of them capitulates, and there's only one contestant left. He reaches for the pen, but the Lackey says "Actually, I think you need a little more development. Swim again, please. Backstroke". And he does of course."

(from Steve Albini's The Problem With Music. Do yourselves a favour and read it if you don't already know it.)

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

[mair_in_grenderich]

I was brought up being made to at least eat a bit of everything at home (one sprout, four broad beans, etc), and to eat what I was given and say thankyou when out. I think this was a very good thing.

My mother instructed that at school we were to eat at least a decent portion of the main dish, not so worried if we didn't like the veg or the potato/chip/etc options.

[gwendally.livejournal.com]

That entire article on "skeptics" was premised on a poor foundation. He said "skeptics are people who deny it". That's not what skeptics are. Skeptics are people who are not blind believers. For example, when scientific results are found to be influenced that leads people to be skeptics: not NON-BELIEVERS. People who believe things without foundation are NOT superior to skeptics. I think it's a point of pride if intellectual rigor is found primarily in the anglo-saxon world.

ETA: Also, us anglo-saxons tend to be the winners in this climate change, so being told we have to pay god-awful large amounts of money to stop our gardens from producing longer is a harder sell.